The Green Man (1990)

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A few miles outside Cambridge in the countryside sits The Green Man, a well preserved stately 17th century hostelry of some renown. Today it is a hotel that also boasts a gourmet restaurant aimed at tourists and the idle rich. Its present owner is the lecherous alcoholic, Maurice Allington (Albert Finney), who lives there with his wife Joyce, his daughter Amy and his father known commonly as "Gramps". The success of The Green Man in most good food guides is owed mainly to Maurice, for he's a genial sort who likes to regale his customers with his knowledge of fine wine and tales of ghosts that still haunt the corridors of The Green Man. Most people take his ghost stories at face value and believe them to be part of an act, but Maurice does regularly see the ghost of a young woman in a long black hooded cloak lurking in the corridors or on the stairs. At a birthday dinner for Maurice, his father (Michael Hordern) begins to act strangely, after he appears to have seen something horrifying, a vision that nobody else sees, Jack a friend of Maurice's present at the meal and a doctor, diagnoses a cerebral hemorrhage, the father dies shortly after wards. That night Maurice is drinking heavily and he sees a vision of his dead father and soon after wards a spectral vision of a man in 17th century clothes in the dining room, guests put his screaming and histrionics down to his keeping the ghost story myth going, but Maurice is seriously disturbed by it and he soon finds the identity of the man to be is a 17th century cleric by the name of Underhill, a man of ill repute, who used his power and mind games and tales of demons to lure underage girls to his bed against their will and he's intent on continuing his dastly deeds. Soon after Maurice is also visited by a winged demon while in the bath, this is the final straw for Jack who now believes Maurice is stressed and should cut back on the booze for the sake of his health. Is Maurice going mad, is he just a drunk or are his visions in some way related to the death of his father, with the help of his lover Diana he investigates further with a spot of grave robbing....The Green Man was a three-part mini series commissioned for the BBC and based on Kinglsey Amis's 1969 novel of the same name. For the most part it plays a like a mundane drama, concerning the ins and outs of running a hotel, keeping the staff and guests happy and of course the celebrity food writers who seem to visit most nights. Its full of dark humour that alleviates from the darker more horrific themes that ensue, its a balance that needs to be exact or the production can fall between two stools, being neither one thing nor the other, but while it does this quite well, it doesn't quite succeed completely, with the lighter end of things winning out. Still though there's enough spooky goings on to satisfy, the mysterious Dr Thomas Underhill striking an imposing image, his long black hair set against his deathly white face is a disturbing sight. There's also a spot of grave robbing in a mist bound cemetery, some dreamlike visions containing demonic vines in an evil wood that bind and ravish young maidens, Maurice even receives a visit from a whiskey drinking God who helps him tackle the evil of Underhill by suggesting he use the powers of the local "Hippy" vicar, nicely played by Nickolas Grace, a vicar who doesn't believe in an afterlife.The cast are very good, Finney excels, his comic timing is very good as are his more dramatic moments, a large range of emotions are called for and he succeeds on all counts. His clumsy attempts to get his lover in to bed with his wife for a threesome are also a joy to behold, especially when it doesn't turn out quite as he planned, as the ladies soon forget he's there. Hordern is left with little screen time, but like a real old pro he still delivers a very memorable performance. All in all The Green Man is a fun sexually charged ghost story with a lot of ideas, there's even time for an exorcism. As a ghost story its visuals are striking, but the humour does take away from its power somewhat, still though the its all very entertaining.

I've never read the novel this movie is based on either, but the movie made its impression on me from its debut. A BBC production that was released on the A&E channel, 'The Green Man' takes the old haunted house story and throws in a main character fighting his own personal demons, a little pseudo-lesbianism, plus an interesting mix of minor characters. Great scene where the other-wordly being pays a visit to Maurice to give him advice on dealing with Dr. Thomas Underhill! I can't decide whether the being was an angel, fallen or otherwise, or simply a messenger. We're all kept guessing as to that one! If anybody knows ghosts, it's the British. Not that we don't have our share, but there is something special about the United Kingdom. It remains a place of enchantment: the history of the Celts, Druids, and the Arthurian legends.Incidentally, even though I wasn't the one to donate it, Riverhead Free Library has this excellent video in its catalog!

I love anything Albert Finney does. A friend loaned Green Man to me because I had lent him A Man of No Importance. He said if I liked Albert Finney, I had to see this one. It was kind of like a bad acid trip mixed with marginal porn, a ghost story and a dollop of gore thrown in for good measure, but despite the dreadful special effects and the silly, disjointed plot, I enjoyed it. I got a kick out of the priest and Josie Lawrence too. Worth seeing just for it's strangeness, and Albert, of course...The religious stuff felt confusing at times. There are some fun bits, the wife and mistress running off together made me laugh. The father was charming. The scenery was gorgeous, and the idea of a haunted inn in Cambridge was just too good to pass up.

Everything that Albert Finney `touches' turns to movie gold and he was the perfect choice for the lead role in this highly original ghost story. The mixing of his alcoholic delusions with the supposedly `objective' presentation of the ghost part gave the whole thing an usual screen credibility. One didn't know half the time what was what, glossing over the delusional to the phantasmagoric. The injection of uniquely English, character based humor, lent an important significance to the otherwise just scary (alebeit very scary) story line. Then there was the contrast of pagan hedonism with the contemporary gloss of civilized, sophisticated hedonism (the elaborate meals and wines all being eagerly consummed by mostly boorsish clients), all this being reflected in the conflicted sexual content of the ghost and his `victims'. One could go on and on about the rich fabric of this jewel. Thank God for the Brits !